


Family Ties

by Luna0603



Category: Stranger Things (TV 2016)
Genre: New York City, Revenge
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-29
Updated: 2020-10-29
Packaged: 2021-03-09 05:41:21
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 14,161
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27269632
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Luna0603/pseuds/Luna0603
Summary: An unexpected person from El's past shows up with a request that could change the entire course of El's life. How much is El willing to risk? And what will El learn about the meaning of family?
Relationships: Eleven | Jane Hopper/Mike Wheeler
Comments: 1
Kudos: 15





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> A/N: Hello again! This is another of my stories that I had posted on fanfiction.net. This one is also complete, and the idea was sent to me by one of my readers on FF. I hope you like it!
> 
> Disclaimer: I do not own Stranger Things or any of its characters.

Nineteen-year-old El Byers was sitting on the couch in her older adoptive brother’s living room, flipping through the channels on the television. Jonathan and Nancy were both at work, and Will was still over at Mike’s house, so El was in the apartment alone. She knew that she and Will had agreed prior to arriving in Hawkins for the summer that Will would get some time to hang out with just the boys and El would get some time to hang out with just Mike. They were staying in Hawkins at Jonathan and Nancy’s apartment for two and a half months, after all, so there was plenty of time for each of them to see their friends.

El had gotten used to living far away from Mike and her friends. Joyce had moved the Byers family to Indianapolis in the fall of 1985, so for the next four years, El was mostly only able to see Mike during holiday breaks from school. Once Mike got his drivers license, he was able to come visit on some weekends, too. It had been hard being so far away from him, but El knew that once Mike graduated from high school, he could move to Indianapolis for college and they could finally be together every day.

But then he got accepted to Northwestern University. It was an issue that Mike and El had gone back and forth on for weeks. At first, El had been hurt that Mike would even apply to the school all the way up in Chicago instead of just taking the opportunity to come live near her. Four years of a long-distance relationship had been hard enough, and El had thought Mike moving to Indianapolis was the plan. Mike had suggested that El move to Chicago with him, but they both knew that was not something that Joyce would realistically allow to happen. Eventually, Mike had decided to just go to college in Indianapolis so they could be closer to each other, saying that the degree would be the same from any college. El had been so confused when she had felt no happiness or relief when Mike told her his decision, only guilt. She then insisted that he go to Northwestern, not wanting to hold him back from what he really wanted and what would be best for him.

So, their long-distance relationship continued. Chicago to Indianapolis was only a three-hour drive, so Mike had promised things between them wouldn’t change. He could still visit on some weekends, and they could still spend every holiday together. They both quickly learned how different college was from high school, as most of Mike’s weekends ended up consisting of him stuck in his dorm room, writing papers and poring over textbooks, not visiting his girlfriend in Indianapolis. Things were hard, and El spent countless nights crying herself to sleep after hanging up the phone, selfishly wishing she hadn’t pushed Mike to going to college in Chicago. Luckily, Joyce saw how much pain El was in, and she agreed to drive both El and Will to Hawkins and let them stay at Jonathan and Nancy’s apartment for the whole summer.

They had been in Hawkins for nearly two weeks. El was having the time of her life being surrounded by all her friends again, and of course getting to spend so much time with Mike. But in the pit of her stomach, she was already aware that the next two months would fly by, and soon she would be saying goodbye again, and they would be faced with another school year apart.

El was startled out of her thoughts by a sharp knock on the door. She sighed as she stood from the couch and crossed the carpet to unlock the door. Will must be returning from spending the night over at Mike’s house, and clearly he forgot the spare key that Jonathan had lent him. El turned the deadbolt and opened the door, and her mouth immediately dropped open when she saw who was standing in the doorway.

“Hello, Jane,” said the dark-haired girl staring back at El. 

El looked the girl up and down, from her black hair, to the nose and lip piercings on her face, to the tattoos that filled every inch of skin on her arms (and El wondered if the “008” tattoo had been covered up), to the black combat boots. This girl had certainly grown up a few years, but El immediately knew who she was seeing.

“Kali,” she said. 

She couldn’t help but wonder if she was really seeing her sister. Was this an extremely vivid dream? Was Kali somewhere using her powers, making El think she was seeing her? Why would she be doing that?

“It is me, Jane. I’m really here,” Kali said as if reading El’s thoughts. “May I come in?”

El nodded and stepped to the side, allowing Kali to enter the apartment. Kali walked in and looked around at the beige walls and the happy photos of Nancy and Jonathan hanging on them. El was silent as Kali examined her surroundings, taking a close look at the framed photo from Nancy and Jonathan’s engagement photoshoot that hung over the couch.

“You do not live here,” Kali observed.

“No, I live in a city a couple hours from here,” El replied.

“Who are they?” Kali asked, pointing at the framed photo.

“My brother and his fiancé,” El said.

“Brother?” Kali asked, her eyebrows raising. She looked back to the photo, and El knew Kali’s eyes went directly to Jonathan’s wrists, trying to see if a number tattoo was visible.

“Not… that kind of brother,” El said.

“Ah,” Kali said with a knowing nod. “The people you ran back to when you left me… they are your family now?”

El did not respond. She remembered years ago when she had taken that bus ride, tracked Kali down, and joined Kali and her friends on their mission of killing the bad men from Kali and El’s past. El remembered how she had backed out at the last minute and left Kali and the rest of the gang to return to Hawkins. To her friends. To Hopper. To Mike. 

“Why are you here, Kali?” El asked.

“I never liked how things between us ended, Jane,” Kali replied. “And I know you never got the closure you were seeking when you came to find me.”

“I was looking for a sister,” El said.

“Which you found,” Kali said.

“But I was not looking to kill anyone, Kali,” El said firmly. 

“And you didn’t,” Kali reminded her calmly.

“Because I am not a killer,” El said.

“You have killed,” Kali pointed out, repeating what El had told her several years ago.

“I did what I had to do to escape that place and to keep my friends safe,” El countered. “But that is all in the past. I’m not in danger anymore, and killing people in front of their children would make me no better than them.”

“You have a good heart, Jane,” Kali said calmly. “And I can respect that you chose not to kill Ray that day. I can respect that you came back here and became part of someone’s family. But living with your new family, having your friends, none of it could possibly bring you closure for all those things that happened at that place.”

“I am happy now, Kali,” El insisted. “I have a mom and two brothers and incredible friends. I am in love with someone who means more to me than anything else in the world.”

“More than finally getting justice for your real mother? The one they ripped you away from and hurt over and over again until they destroyed her?” Kali asked.

El furrowed her brow. Why was Kali bringing up Mama?

“What are you talking about?” El asked.

“He is alive, Jane,” Kali said earnestly.

El stared into Kali’s dark eyes while Kali waited silently for the realization to strike. When it did, a cold chill trickled down El’s spine.

“Papa?” she asked just above a whisper, and Kali nodded. “But how do you know?”

“After you fled, the rest of us took off. We had to relocate and lay low for a while,” Kali began. “But I knew one day I would have to go back and finish Ray off. One day when enough time had passed so he would feel safe again, safe and unsuspecting.”

El watched as a sinister smile crept across Kali’s lips as the girl remembered seeking her revenge.

“I went back for him last year,” Kali continued. “And as he was begging for his life, pleading for me to stop… He told me again that Brenner was still alive and that he had proof. I didn’t fall for his words. I finished the job… But then, something drew me to the closet. On the very top shelf, almost lost underneath piles of junk, there was a small cardboard box, like the kind that checks come in… Letters from Brenner. There were only three, but it seems Brenner and Ray wrote back and forth briefly a couple of years ago. He knows that you’re alive, Jane.”

El felt as her world began to spiral. Papa was alive? Where was he? What was he doing? Why had he not come after her in so many years? 

“W-where…?” El trailed off.

“There was no return address on the letters,” Kali said simply. “That is why I am here. You can find him, Jane. Then you and I can go to him and finally, finally seek proper revenge for everything that he did to us.”

The venom was dripping from Kali’s words, and El could not pretend that her hatred for Papa did not match that of her sister’s. Of course she wanted that vile man to be brought to justice. She thought he had been years ago when he was killed at Hawkins Middle School… But if this were true, if Papa had somehow survived that… Wouldn’t he be looking for her again? Wouldn’t she be in danger?

“You want me to find him… so we can kill him,” El said, and Kali nodded her confirmation though she knew it was not a question.

“Think about it, Jane. We would be taking control over the man who controlled us for years. We could get our revenge, our justice that will never come any other way,” Kali pressed.

“But I could never return here,” El realized.

The truth dawned on her that if she were to do this, if she were to leave with Kali and track down and kill Papa, she would forever be on the run with Kali and her gang. She couldn’t come back to Hawkins, to her friends, to her family, to Mike, not after committing pre-meditated murder. She would lose everything.

“Why would you need to return here?” Kali asked.

“My family-”

“He took the only true family you had, Jane, when he took away your mother,” Kali interrupted. “These people who took you in, even your policeman-”

“He is gone,” El interrupted this time sadly.

“I am sorry to hear that,” Kali said somberly. “But the woman you see as your mom, your new brothers, they may care for you, but they don’t understand what you’ve survived. Only I do. And you’re the only person who understands what I’ve been through. We have a unique connection, Jane, and it is the closest thing to being a real family that either of us have left.”

El pursed her lips. She loved the Byers family, and she knew the Byers family loved her. After all, when Hopper never returned, Joyce did not hesitate contacting Dr. Owens and working to have adoption papers drawn up to officially change El Hopper to El Byers. But still, Kali had a point. Kali was the only person with those shared experiences from their childhood, the only person who understood what happened at the lab. Kali was not her sister by blood or by law, but by something that El could not explain.

But there was Mike.

“I would be losing Mike,” El said.

“A boyfriend?” Kali said incredulously.

“He is more than just a boyfriend,” El said defensively.

“Are you married?” Kali asked.

“Well, no, but he…” El trailed off thinking about everything Mike was to her. He was her best friend, her whole world, the person who saved her life and showed her what friendship, love, and safety all felt like. “I guess he is technically just my boyfriend, but with us, it is just so different.”

“Does he love you the way you love him?” Kali asked.

“Yes,” El replied with no hesitation.

“Then he will understand that you have to do this, and he will support you,” Kali said. “After things calm down surrounding Brenner’s death, and after we’ve laid low for long enough, you could return to him. You don’t have to lose him.”

El thought about how lonely her life would be, laying low with Kali and the gang, not seeing or talking to Mike for who knows how long. It was already hard enough when he was away at college and they hardly saw each other. This would certainly be worse, and by the time El could safely return to him, Mike was certain to have met someone new…

Just then, the front door opened and Will entered the living room followed by Mike, Lucas, Dustin, and Max. Everyone was in Hawkins for the summer, and the boys had all stayed at Mike’s house last night. El saw the look of surprise and confusion on all five of their faces when they saw that El had a visitor.

“I should get going,” Kali said. “Think about it, Jane. You know how to find me.”

Kali walked by the rest of the party without a word and exited the apartment. Dustin pushed the door closed behind her, and all five of them turned to El with questions plastered to their faces.

“El, who was that?” Mike asked.

El looked up at him, knowing she couldn’t lie to him.

“My sister,” she replied quietly and held his eye contact until she saw that the realization struck him as he remembered El telling him about Kali several years ago.

“Sister?!” Will, Lucas, Max, and Dustin all questioned in unison.

“What did she want?” Mike asked, ignoring the rest of their friends.

“She wanted to talk,” El replied vaguely.

“About what?” Mike continued.

“Hold on. Can we go back to the news of El having a sister?” Dustin interjected, and Mike rolled his eyes.

“Wait, you already knew?” Will asked, furrowing his brow at Mike.

“Of course I knew. She tells me everything,” Mike snapped before turning back to El. “So why won’t you tell me what she wanted?”

“I don’t want to talk about it right now, Mike,” El insisted.

“How have we never heard about her? Or met her? You’ve lived with us for five years,” Will sounded hurt. “Does she live in Hawkins? Did Terry have another daughter?”

El inhaled and exhaled a deep breath.

“No. She’s my…” El turned her wrist over to show her “011” tattoo that her friends often forgot about. “She is number eight.”

Silence washed over the room as the four who just learned about Kali for the first time took in the information. None of them could be overly surprised that there were more people around their age that had been with El in the lab. After all, El was number eleven, so there must have been at least ten others. But none of them knew what to say.

“How did she… or how did you… know about each other?” Will asked.

“I tracked her down that year that Hopper kept me hidden. She was living in Chicago,” El replied simply.

“You went to Chicago?” Will asked.

“You never told me any of this,” Max chimed in, also sounding hurt.

“Have you seen her again since?” Lucas asked.

“No, I haven’t seen her since,” El replied. “And the reason I didn’t tell you guys about it was… I didn’t want you to think less of me.”

“What are you talking about?” Max asked.

“We could never think less of you,” Will assured her.

El chuckled darkly and walked over to sit on the couch, guiding Mike along with her. Everyone took a seat around the living room, not quite sure what to expect.

“I went looking for her because I wanted to find my sister,” El said. “She was on a mission… A mission to hunt down and kill all the bad men from that place. She wanted me to help her.”

“D-did you?” Will asked, clearly afraid of the answer.

“I tried, but I couldn’t,” El replied. “I couldn’t bring myself to kill, and Kali got upset with me. I left abruptly to come back to you all, and Kali and I haven’t spoken since.”

El watched as her friends processed this information. She glanced at Mike out of the corner of her eye, knowing that he knew all the details that she had left out. He looked worried.

“So, how did she find you today?” Will finally broke the silence.

“I… actually, I don’t know,” El replied, furrowing her brow. “I was so surprised to see her, I didn’t think to ask.”

“El, what did she want?” Mike asked again.

“I really don’t want to talk about this until I’ve had some time to think it over,” El said.

“Think what over?” Mike asked, and El could hear the fear rising in his voice.

“Mike, if she doesn’t want to talk about it-” Max started.

“No. El has only ever killed in self-defense, and this Kali girl tried to turn her into a vengeful killer,” Mike interrupted. “I want to know why she was here today. I want to know what she wanted.”

“She told me that Papa is still alive,” El blurted out. “Sh-she had proof.”

Mike’s stomach sank. Brenner could still be alive? How much could they trust this Kali girl? If it were true, El could be in serious danger. They all could be.

“Even if that’s true, you know I would never let anything happen to you,” Mike said, squeezing her hand.

“Mike, I love you,” El said, a small smile crossing her lips at his devotion to her. “But with Papa, that is not a promise you can make. There is only one way to know that he is not a danger to me…”

“He needs to die,” Will filled in the blank.

“Is that why Kali was here?” Mike asked, his eyes widening. “Does she want you to go with her to try and kill Brenner?”

“Yes,” El replied meekly.

“You told her no, right? There’s no way in hell you’re confronting that sadistic asshole,” Mike said firmly.

“Don’t you think that’s El’s decision to make?” Max asked, and El furrowed her brow at her boyfriend, having thought the same thing.

“We are not having that same fight again,” Mike said to Max before turning to El. “What did you tell her, El?”

“I didn’t give her an answer,” El replied.

“Are you actually thinking about doing it?!” Mike asked incredulously. “What could possibly compel you to even consider-”

“Justice for Mama,” El interjected.

Mike saw the pain welling in El’s eyes, and he sighed, his expression softening.

“El, killing Brenner won’t give your mom her life back,” he said softly. “Going after him will only put you in danger.”

“As long as he is out there, I’m already in danger,” El sniffled. “And so are you. So are all of you.”

“So… if you were to… you know…” Max began. “Then what?”

“Then I would be on the run with Kali and her gang,” El replied. “I couldn’t come back here. Not for a long time, if ever.”

“Why?” Max asked.

“He is a well-known scientist and has long been associated with Hawkins Lab. If he suddenly turns up dead, there will be eyes everywhere. I would have to lay low for a long time, and coming back near any of you would put you in danger again,” El explained.

“Please, don’t do it, El,” Mike said.

“Do you want to do it?” Max asked.

El considered the question. Ever since the question had first left Kali’s mouth, El had not actually asked herself if this was something she actually wanted to do. She knew she would be risking losing a lot, but she could also get her mama the justice she deserved. Her mama had sacrificed so much for El, couldn’t El make sacrifices too?

“Kali is the closest thing to a family I have,” El began slowly.

“What about us?” Will asked, his tone filled with hurt and anger.

“I love you guys, and I am so thankful,” El said quickly. “But Kali is the only one I grew up with. She lived what I lived and knows… everything. She is the only person who can truly understand certain things about me. And this might be the one chance to have a relationship with my sister.”

“What about us, El?” Mike finally asked what had been on his mind. “If you leave and have to go into hiding for an undetermined amount of time… what happens to us?”

El looked at him, and the panic that filled his eyes broke her heart. She cupped his cheek and let her thumb caress his cheekbone.

“You would find someone else, Mike. I know you would,” El said, swallowing the lump that formed in her throat at the idea of the love of her life being with someone else. “Someone that would be good for you… that wouldn’t put you in danger… that you could see more often than holidays.”

“No. I could never want anyone else, El,” Mike said firmly. “And I couldn’t live with not knowing where you were or if I would ever see you again.”

“Could there be another option?” Lucas asked, directing the attention away from Mike and El’s relationship.

“Like what?” El asked.

“Could you go into the void and find Brenner, tell Kali where he is, and let Kali handle the rest?” Lucas suggested. “That way you would still be helping your sister, Brenner would still be dead, and you wouldn’t have to go in to hiding.”

“That could work,” Max agreed, and Will and Dustin also nodded their agreement.

“It’s still too risky,” Mike disagreed. “Brenner knows El’s powers. What if he senses her visiting him in the void? Or what if Kali finds a way to convince El to come with her after all? Or if seeing Brenner in the void enrages El enough to want to go with Kali anyway?”

“You’re acting like if El chooses to help Kali find him but not kill him, El could still be easily persuaded by Kali,” Max said. “El does have her own mind, you know.”

“Of course I know that. I just don’t want her to put herself in unnecessary danger,” Mike shot back before turning to El. “El, just please tell me that you’re not going to do this.”

While Mike and Max were bickering, El had been considering Lucas’s suggestion. She thought it might be an idea to run by Kali. El could offer to help find Papa but not participate in killing him. That would certainly be safer, and maybe Kali could make it appear that he died from natural causes… there would be no reason for anyone to be looking for El… Sure, she could still play it safe for a while. But living in Indianapolis so far from Hawkins naturally helped with that.

“Lucas’s idea could work,” El said, and Mike let out an exasperated sigh. “I could suggest it to Kali.”

“And she would talk you in to helping her kill him anyway,” Mike exclaimed.

“Jesus, Mike, you’re acting like El has no free will anymore,” Max said. “If she doesn’t want to go with Kali, she won’t go with Kali. If she does go and doesn’t want to kill Brenner herself, she won’t kill him. She knows her limits better than anyone.”

“No she doesn’t!” Mike screamed.

A deafening silence filled the room as the five of them looked at Mike, eyes widened and mouths dropped open at his outburst. Mike looked at El who was staring at him with so much pain in her eyes that were brimmed with tears.

“El, I’m sorry, okay? You do know your limits, but you push through them anyway. You don’t know when to stop,” Mike said calmly, taking one of her hands in both of his. “You put everyone else before yourself, and you just push and push yourself until you literally collapse from exhaustion. You pushed yourself so hard defeating the demogorgon that you ended up in the Upside Down. You put yourself between me and Billy when you could hardly stand. You used your powers so much in such a short time that you literally lost them for two years. It’s just, I know what lengths you’re willing to go to for people you care about, and I’m scared that if you go along with any part of this, you’ll end up going with Kali to kill Brenner because you’ll want to feel like you’re doing right by your sister or you’ll want to feel like you’re getting justice for your mom. That’s why I don’t want you to do this. I don’t want you to push yourself passed your limits again.”

El shook her head in disbelief. She could feel the rage burning in her stomach from Mike screaming that she doesn’t know her limits. 

Does he love you the way you love him?... Then he will understand that you have to do this, and he will support you.

“I can’t believe that you still don’t trust me,” El said just above a whisper.

“El, I-”

El ripped her hand out of Mike’s hands and stood from the couch, storming toward the front door.

“El, where are you going?” Mike called, standing from the couch as well.

“I need to think. And don’t you dare follow me,” El spat.

She slammed the door behind her with a tilt of her head, leaving Mike and her friends staring after her, not knowing where she was going or what she was going to do.


	2. Chapter 2

By the time El reached the motel, her anger was finally starting to subside. She had stormed out of the apartment in a rage, seeing nothing but red after Mike had declared in front of all of their friends that he did not believe she could control herself enough to know when to stop using her powers. Everything else was a blur, but El knew she had stopped underneath the stairs outside and entered the void to find Kali, and now she was crossing the parking lot of the motel she had seen in the void.

The motel was a budget motel, and there were only a handful of vehicles in the parking lot. El spotted a van and immediately knew it belonged to Kali’s gang. It was not the same vehicle from all those years ago in Chicago, but El knew. She walked up the stairs to the second row of rooms and walked until she was in front of the door she had seen in the void. Room 205.

El took a deep breath and knocked on the door. A moment later, it opened to reveal Kali who offered a small but relieved smile.

“I was hoping I would be seeing you again, Jane,” she said.

Kali stepped to the side to invite El into the room. Once inside, El gazed around the room at the four more familiar faces.

“Long time, no see, Shirley,” Axel greeted, and El instinctively grinned at the Shirley Temple reference from years ago. 

“Hi,” El replied simply. Short of a few new tattoos and his mohawk being green instead of orange, Axel had not changed one bit.

“Welcome back, Miss Jane,” said a voice from the couch on the other side of the room, and El looked to see Funshine who was sitting next to Dottie with a deck of cards, playing a game El did not recognize.

“Thank you,” El said, nodding a greeting to both Funshine and Dottie.

El nodded toward Mick who was seated at the desk in the small motel room, watching out the only window in the room. Once greetings were exchanged, Kali wasted no time diving back into the plan she had presented El with earlier.

“Jane, have you thought about what we discussed?” she asked.

“I have,” El nodded. “I… I want justice for Mama.”

A smile broke over Kali’s face at El’s words.

“So you will help us find him?” Kali asked hopefully, and El nodded. “Excellent. Let’s get started.”

Kali took El’s hand and guided her over to the far side of the bed and prompted her to sit down.

“Whoa, Kal, she just got here. Give her some time to relax,” Axel said.

Kali spun her head around to face him, and the whole gang could see her desire to put her plan into action written all over her face.

“The longer we wait, the longer he is out there. I need this to be over,” she said firmly.

El felt the tension in the silent room, and she could only imagine the several battles that probably occurred between Kali and the rest of the gang ever since Kali had found out Brenner was still alive. Kali’s craving for revenge was evident and was likely all she had focused on for the past year.

The weight of what she was about to do began to sink in, and El’s mind was flooded with the image she saw of Brenner all those years ago when she had last seen Kali.

All this time, and you haven’t looked for me. Why? Because you thought I was dead? Or because you were afraid of what you might find?

What would she find? She had been so focused on the idea of getting justice for Mama, that she hadn’t really considered coming face to face with Papa.

You have to confront your pain. You have a wound, Eleven, a terrible wound, and it’s festering.

“It’s okay,” El said. “I can do it. I am ready.”

Kali turned back to El, a look of gratitude in her eyes. El reached for the radio on the nightstand and tuned it to the static. She then slipped one of the motel pillows out of its pillow case and folded it to make it smaller before tying it around her eyes like a blindfold. Then, El focused.

She could feel five sets of eyes on her, and she did her best to block them out. El soon found herself opening her eyes in that familiar blackness, and she looked down at the shallow water rippling over her feet. She focused with all of her might on finding him… though she could feel her stomach twisting in knots at the idea of seeing his face again. That tall, thin frame, those small dark eyes peering down at her, and that silver hair.

Soon, El saw a building in the distance. She began to walk toward it, and it came into view better. El furrowed her brow when she was standing on the sidewalk, looking up at the building that was at least ten stories tall. To her left, there was an entrance with the word “Emergency” in large, red block letters. To her right was another large entrance with a sign indicating it was the main entrance. As El approached the main entrance, she caught a glimpse of the address on the sliding glass door. New York City.

El continued focusing on her target, and soon she was no longer at the entrance to the hospital. Now, El was standing alone outside of a hospital room with the number 1024 displayed on the wall next to it. The door opened for El, as if inviting her inside, and a hospital bed came clearly into view. She stepped closer and saw that silver hair shimmering on the pillow at the top of the bed. His eyes were closed, and his face was thinner, but El knew immediately that this was him.

“Papa,” she breathed.

Back in the motel room in Hawkins, El reached behind her head and pulled the pillowcase off. She opened her eyes to see Kali and her gang staring questioningly at her. El was breathing hard as she recovered from using her powers, and she grabbed a tissue from the nightstand to dab at the blood dripping from her left nostril.

“Did you find him, Jane?” Kali asked when El had been silent for a few moments.

“Yes,” El replied softly, nodding.

“Where is he? Is he close?” Kali pressed on, and El shook her head.

“No. He is in New York City,” she replied.

“New York?!” Kali repeated. “He must have wanted to relocate far enough away after the lab shut down.”

“There is more,” El said. “He is… in a hospital.”

“A hospital? Like, working? Or visiting?” Kali asked, and El shook her head.

“Room 1024. I think he is sick,” El explained, and a sinister grin spread over Kali’s face.

“This may be even easier than I imagined. Confined to a hospital bed, he’s a sitting duck,” she said. “There must be hundreds of hospitals in New York City. Do you know which one?”

“I saw the address,” El replied. She grabbed a piece of paper from the motel notepad on the nightstand and jotted down the address she had seen on the sliding glass door and handed it to Kali.

“Perfect. We should get going,” Kali said. “If we leave now, we can be there by morning.”

The gang jumped immediately into action, grabbing the few belongings they had brought into the motel room with them. Mick emptied the mini fridge of the snacks and drinks they had stocked it with while Dottie cleared the bathroom of all the mini bottles of shampoo, conditioner, and body wash. 

“Before we hit the road, do you think another makeover is in order for Shirley, here?” Axel asked, gesturing toward El.

El looked down at the simple jeans and red tank top she was wearing. Kali pulled an oversized black button-down top out of her bag and tossed it at El.

“Just put this on, and maybe pull your hair back,” she instructed.

El shrugged into the black shirt over top of her tank top but did not button it. She tied the bottom into a knot in the middle and then tied her hair into a quick bun with the hairtie from her wrist.

“Good enough for me,” Kali smiled.

“At least there were no overalls this time,” Axel teased, and El blushed at the memory of showing up in overalls and a flannel shirt with her unruly short hair.

“Let’s go,” Kali said with a look around the room to ensure they were forgetting nothing.

The six of them quickly made their way from the motel room, down the stairs, across the parking lot, and into the van that El had correctly identified as theirs. Mick drove, Axel was in the front passenger seat, Funshine and Dottie took the middle row, and El and Kali sat in the back row. Before El knew it, they had left Hawkins and were on their way to the highway onramp.

Excitement filled the van, loud rock music played from the speakers while they traveled east on the highway. El looked around, taking them all in, and her eyes landed on Kali.

“I am glad you came, Jane,” Kali said.

“You shouldn’t have to go after him alone… He hurt both of us,” El said.

“I’m not only happy about the revenge we are about to seek,” Kali explained. “Do you remember when I told you that it felt like there was a hole inside me? That when you showed up, you filled that hole and completed me?”

“Yes,” El nodded.

“After you left, that hole came back, but now, I’m complete again,” Kali said. “We are meant to be in each other’s lives, Jane. We are family. I hope you feel the same way now.”

El smiled at Kali’s words and acceptance. Kali truly was the only person that knew everything El had gone through.

“Did you tell your boyfriend where you were going?” Kali asked. El’s face fell as she nodded. “Was he understanding and supportive?”

“Not exactly,” El replied sadly. “He didn’t want me to go. He doesn’t think I can control myself.”

“I’m sorry, Jane,” Kali said gently. “Sometimes people who aren’t like us, who haven’t been through what we’ve been through, they just don’t understand. Luckily, my friends understand why I need to do what I need to do. They support me. And they’ll support you, too.”

El smiled graciously and leaned her head against the window next to her. Her hand automatically raised to her collarbone, and her fingers began absentmindedly playing with the necklace Mike had gotten her for their anniversary this year.

They continued down the highway and stopped for gas somewhere on the east side of Ohio. The sun had set, and they were one of only three vehicles at the gas station. As Mick pumped gas, Kali, El, and Dottie went inside the gas station. El was fully prepared for Kali to use her abilities to distract the cashier like she had several years ago, but instead, Kali led El down an aisle toward the drink coolers.

“We’ve learned to be more discrete over the years,” Kali said quietly as she slid a bag of chips into the pocket of her long coat.

El followed Kali’s lead, walking up and down the snack aisles, sneaking candy bars into her jeans pockets and filling her loosely-fitting tied shirt with bags of snacks. 

“Won’t this look obvious?” El whispered to Kali, gesturing toward the noticeable bulges in their pockets.

“Not to him,” Kali said, nodding toward the cashier behind the counter. “Are you both ready?”

El and Dottie nodded, and the three girls walked toward the front door. Kali nodded politely at the cashier as they passed him and walked outside, and El knew she must have used her powers to make the three of them appear normal, as if their clothes weren’t stuffed full of snacks.

Once inside the van, Kali tossed a bag up chips up front to Axel and a bag of pretzels to Funshine.

“The way you remember was certainly more fun, but this way attracts less attention,” Kali explained to El.

They hit the road again, and El munched quietly on the snacks she had taken from the gas station. Suddenly, a question she had wondered earlier in the day came back to her.

“Kali, how did you find me today?” she asked.

“You were not exactly an easy person to find, Jane,” Kali smiled. “But, I do have years of experience in tracking people down. The night we first met, you told me you had come from Hawkins, Indiana. I never forgot that.”

“But I moved away from Hawkins a year later,” El said.

“Well, I didn’t start looking for you until this past year after I finished off Ray,” Kali said. “The first time we went to Hawkins, I saw how small of a town it was, and I thought we would find you instantly. I was surprised when we had been there nearly a week and I had not seen you anywhere. We left… you know we don’t like to stay in one spot for too long. We went on with life, but I kept making them go back to Hawkins every couple of months because I knew eventually I would find you there. A few days ago, I had this strong sensation pulling me to Hawkins… almost like the one I felt in Ray’s apartment when I was led to those letters… I knew you were there. Sure enough, I saw you yesterday leaving a diner with a girl with red hair. We followed you to that apartment, but we saw that there were two other people inside. We waited until this morning when they had gone, and that’s when I came to see you.”

“So, you just kept coming back and searching Hawkins until you found me?” El asked.

“That’s right,” Kali nodded.

“I live in Indianapolis now, but I am here with my brother visiting our other brother and our friends,” El explained. “The girl with the red hair you saw me with yesterday is my friend Max, and the two people in the apartment were my brother and his fiancé.”

“I was sure if I waited long enough, you would be alone for at least a short time,” Kali said.

El nodded, a bit in awe at how much effort Kali had put in to finding her by returning to Hawkins repeatedly to search.

“We’ll have to stop one more time, but we should make it to New York City in about eight hours,” Mick called from the front seat, startling both El and Kali who looked in her direction.

“I don’t want you to take us to New York. Take us to New Jersey,” Kali said.

“What? But Jane said he is in New York,” Mick reminded her, confused.

“We’ll plant ourselves in New Jersey, and then Jane and I will take the bus through the tunnel into New York,” Kali said.

“You don’t want us to come along?” Axel asked, turning around in the front passenger seat.

“Then why the hell are we here?” Dottie added, exasperated.

“If he is hospitalized, he probably can’t fight back. We won’t need backup,” Kali explained. “Besides, this is a mission for me and Jane. This is something we need to do together.”

Kali turned and smiled at El while reaching over to squeeze her hand.

“We will meet back up with you guys when the deed is done,” Kali concluded.

There was a bit more grumbling from the front seat, but the gang seemed to concede, and a comfortable silence soon filled the van. El watched the streetlights as they continued down the highway, now somewhere in Pennsylvania. She thought of home, finding it hard to believe that just several hours earlier, she was in Jonathan’s apartment back in Hawkins with her friends, and now she was on a mission with Kali and her gang to seek their final revenge on Papa.

El ran her fingers down the chain on her neck to the diamond pendant resting on her collarbone and began to twiddle it between her fingers as she stared out the window. She had been so mad at Mike. How could he not trust her? How could he say those things to her? She knew when to stop. The only reason she had pushed herself so far in the middle school that night was because if she hadn’t, the demogorgon would have killed her new friends, and she couldn’t let that happen. And, sure, she was exhausted when she put herself between Mike and Billy during the sauna test that day, but Billy had been possessed, and she couldn’t have let anything happen to Mike. Mike used examples of times when El had had no other choice but to push herself. It wasn’t because she didn’t know she was beyond her limits, but it was because she knew if she didn’t push herself beyond her limits, she would lose someone she loved. 

But this would be different. Papa was confined to a hospital bed. She wasn’t going to be in that type of danger, so there would be no reason to use her powers like that. Besides, El wasn’t even sure if she was going to participate in killing him. She knew she would help Kali get there, but she just didn’t know what would happen next. She likely wouldn’t know until she found herself in that situation.

She did know that she was missing Mike. The last thing she had said to him was a demand for him not to follow her. She had been so angry. But now, as El rode in the van on her way to confront Papa, she found herself wishing Mike was next to her. She wondered what he was doing. Did he go home? Did he regret saying what he said?

El glanced next to her at Kali who had fallen asleep with her head against the window. She knew she didn’t have a radio or television to assist her, but El had entered the void numerous times. Maybe if she concentrated really hard, she could do it without the static.

El closed her fingers around the necklace she was caressing, and she closed her eyes tight. She tuned out the sounds of other vehicles on the highway, the feel of the bumps in the road, and the sounds and smells inside the van. El focused solely on Mike. She pictured his face, his beautiful dark eyes, his soft thick hair, and she thought of how loved he makes her feel every day.

It took several moments and hard concentration, but soon, El opened her eyes in the void. She smiled to herself and began walking forward. In the distance, she could see a couch and two people, one sitting and one standing. As she got closer, El recognized it as the couch in Jonathan and Nancy’s living room. Will was sitting on the couch as Mike paced back and forth in front of it. Finally, El was close enough to hear what they were saying.

“Come on, Mike, it’s late,” Will said.

“Exactly!” Mike exclaimed. “It’s after midnight, and she never came back. I knew I should’ve gone after her.”

“That only would’ve pissed her off even more,” Will pointed out.

“So? At least I would know where she is. I would rather her be pissed at me but know that she’s safe,” Mike said, his voice strained in worry.

Mike let out a deep sigh as he ran his hand through his hair and continued to pace back and forth. El walked to the end of the couch, and when Mike turned around, she saw his eyes widen briefly as if he were taken by surprise. He stopped pacing, looking right at her, and El knew that he sensed she was there.

“She probably just went for a walk or something and ended up at Max’s house and waited for Max to get home so they could bitch about what you said,” Will said, completely unaware of El’s presence.

“Uh, y-yeah, maybe,” Mike said, not moving his eyes from El’s.

“Jonathan said if she doesn’t come home tomorrow, we will go out looking for her, but I guarantee she’s at Max’s right now. Just call Max’s house in the morning and apologize,” Will said. “There’s nothing else you can do tonight except maybe figure out what you’re going to say to her.”

“I already know what I’d say to her,” Mike said softly. “I would tell her how happy I am to know that she’s safe, and that I love her more than anything else in the world. And I would tell her that I’m sorry for doubting her, but that I only said that because I know how brave and selfless she is, and I was scared that she would put helping Kali and getting justice for her mom ahead of her own safety. I know she puts the people she cares about before herself all the time, but she is everything to me, so the thought of her going after Brenner… the idea that I could lose her… I just, I wasn’t thinking straight because the thought of losing her just makes me crazy. I shouldn’t have said it the way I did. But I would just tell her that I’m sorry, that I love her, that I miss her, and that I just want her to come back.”

El stepped closer to Mike until she was standing so close that she would be able to feel his breath if she were really there. She was careful not to touch him, not wanting him to disappear.

“I love you. I need to find some closure, but then I will come back. And I’ll be careful. I promise,” El said.

“I don’t think you needed to practice your speech on me, but, uh, yeah, that’s good. Say that to her tomorrow,” Will said to Mike, still oblivious to El’s presence in the room.

“I will,” Mike smiled, and El could see in his eyes that he knew he had already said it to her.

El opened her eyes, and she was back in the van, traveling down the highway in eastern Pennsylvania. Around her, everyone was sleeping except Axel who had taken over driving for Mick when they stopped while El was visiting Mike in the void. El took a deep breath and rested her head against the window again. She closed her eyes and let herself drift off to sleep for the remainder of the ride.


	3. Chapter 3

They arrived in New Jersey around 7:30am, and Axel pulled into the parking lot of a small motel next to a Denny’s. Kali handled getting them into a room by using her powers at the front desk to make the front desk clerk see a reservation with an early check-in time due to arriving on an early flight. The clerk apologized for having overlooked the reservation, and after sending housekeeping to ensure that an empty room was clean, he handed the room keys over to Kali.

The six of them found the room they had been given, and then Mick and Dottie announced that they were going next door to Denny’s and would bring breakfast back for everyone. Axel collapsed onto one of the beds and fell asleep almost immediately, exhausted from driving the last several hours. Funshine positioned himself to watch out the window of their motel room so he could see Mick and Dottie make the trip to Denny’s and back and ensure they stayed safe and did not need help.

“We will eat quickly to restore our energy, and then we will get on the bus to New York,” Kali said.

El nodded. She still didn’t know what she would do when she saw Papa again for the first time in years. She wanted revenge for Mama, but she wanted to be able to get back to Mike, too. And if she could avoid it, she didn’t want to leave things with Kali the way she had last time either. All her conflicting feelings were overwhelming, and El’s furrowed brow caught Kali’s attention.

“Are you okay, Jane?” she asked.

“Yes, I am,” El nodded. “I just don’t know what it will be like seeing Papa again.”

“We will have the power over him this time, Jane. It will be satisfying,” Kali replied.

Soon, Mick and Dottie returned with styrofoam containers full of pancakes and several packages of syrup. Kali shook Axel awake, and the six of them devoured their breakfast. By 8:30am, Kali and El were saying goodbye and walking out the motel room door to find the bus stop. El could feel the knife that Axel had given her rubbing against her stomach from its place in the inside pocket of the jacket she was wearing.

“Kali thinks it will be easy, and maybe it will be. But take this just in case you need to defend yourself,” Axel had said in a hushed tone while Kali was distracted before they had left the motel room.

El had looked at what Axel was offering her and recognized it as the same knife he had pulled on her the first day they met. She had nodded and given Axel a silent look of gratitude before slipping it into the jacket’s inside pocket.

Kali and El reached the bus stop, and soon they were loading the bus that would take them to their final destination. The ride through the tunnel to New York City was new and would likely have been exciting to El under different circumstances. She just didn’t know how to feel. She was certainly anxious. Having the knife in her jacket and Kali by her side, not to mention having her powers back, all helped to assure her that she was as safe as she could hope to be going into this, but El could not shake the anxiety. 

What would it be like to see him again? How would she feel seeing his face again in real life? Would she be overcome with rage and hatred? Would those feelings of fear and vulnerability return? Could she kill him? If not, could she let Kali? Knowing he was dead would definitely make El feel better. There would never be the chance of him coming after her again. But, if he was confined to a hospital bed, that chance was already diminished, right? Even if he could no longer hurt her, he still never paid for what he had done to her in the past. For what he had done to Kali and the other children, and to Mama.

The bus came to a stop, jolting El out of her thoughts. She and Kali stepped out onto the bustling streets of New York City. El looked around, her eyes wide at the mountainous buildings surrounding them and the herds of people pushing by. Kali was unphased, having spent a lot of time in many big cities, including New York.

“I thought you said you live in a city now,” Kali said, observing El’s shock.

“Indianapolis is nothing like this,” El said. Even Chicago had not been quite this crowded.

“Come on,” Kali said, taking El’s hand and pulling her from the bus stop.

They stopped at a city directory and found their destination on the map. It appeared they only had two blocks to walk. Kali and El made their way down those two blocks, keeping up with the pace of the crowds. Finally, they stopped in front of a hospital, and El looked up at the building towering over them.

“Is this it?” Kali asked, fishing for the paper from her pocket that El had scribbled the address on.

“Yes,” El replied quietly, not needing to compare the address. She knew.

Kali nodded and, still gripping El’s hand, she concentrated on making the two of them appear invisible so no one, including security cameras, would see them entering and walking through the hospital.

Once inside, the woman at the front desk did not look up or give any indication that she noticed them, which confirmed to El that they were invisible. Kali and El hurried to the elevator and waited until it arrived on the ground floor. The doors opened up and three people exited, vacating the elevator. Kali and El slipped inside and pressed the button for the tenth floor. The doors closed, just the two of them inside.

El watched the numbers on the elevator rising as they passed each floor, getting closer to the tenth. She nervously dug at her fingernails. Her stomach was turning, knowing they were getting closer to Papa with each passing second. El glanced at Kali next to her, and she saw that her sister maintained a look of confident determination. She was here on a mission and would not leave until it was complete.

The elevator stopped and the doors opened to reveal a large number ten on the wall looking back at them, confirming they had reached the correct floor. They stepped out and started down the hallway. Kali was looking at the room numbers on each door they passed, but El was busy looking around at the lack of people that were in the hall with them. She couldn’t help but feel that it was eerily empty, and she furrowed her brow when they passed a nurses station with only one woman in blue scrubs sitting behind the desk. The woman looked up as Kali and El passed, seemingly looking right at them.

“Are we still invisible?” El whispered when they had passed the nurses station.

“Of course,” Kali said. She came to an abrupt stop and pointed at the number 1024. “We’re here.”

“Kali, doesn’t this seem strange to you? There’s hardly anybody on this floor. Look around, no doctors, only one nurse at the nurses station we passed. It’s empty,” El pointed out.

“Good. Then there is no one around to see this door open on its own,” Kali said, turning the door handle and pushing the door open just enough for herself and El to slip inside.

El stared at the floor, her ears filling with the sound of a beeping monitor. It smelled sterile, and it was silent other than the buzz and beeps from the machine. The lights were dim, and the curtains were drawn. Slowly, El allowed her eyes to raise from the floor, up the twin-sized hospital bed with its fresh white sheets. She saw his arms resting at his sides on top of the blanket his body was covered in. Her gaze continued upward until she landed on his face. His thin, gaunt face, his lips a pale thin line below his bony nose, and his eyes closed.

El’s stomach dropped at the sight of him. But as immediately as her stomach dropped, the fire within her blood began to rage. Her breath became quick and shallow as she stared at the closed eyes of her childhood captor. She began to step forward until she was standing right beside Kali at his bedside.

The two girls stared at him as he lay defenseless, unconscious, before them. Kali reached to the foot of his bed and grabbed his chart.

“Cancer,” she simply said as her eyes skimmed over the papers. “Pancreatic. Progressed to stage four over the past three years… That is still too good for him.”

Kali dropped his chart back into its slot at the foot of his bed. She looked next to her at El whose eyes were still fixed on Brenner’s closed ones. El’s face was turning a light shade of red, and Kali could see the hatred seething in her sister’s eyes.

“Let it out, Jane. He can’t hurt you. Not here,” Kali said.

“He took… everything… from me. My childhood, my mama, the chance to just be a normal kid,” El said just above a whisper. “I should’ve been going to school, making friends, having birthday parties, learning to ride a bike… but I was being tested on, trained to be a killing machine, submerged under water – I still can’t swim under water without risking a damn panic attack!”

El’s hands were shaking, and Kali was silent as El took several deep breaths to calm herself back down.

“That is exactly why we are here, Jane,” Kali said. “This monster ripped us both from our families and hurt us for years. We were raised in fear. He held the power over us, but now, it is our turn to hold the power over him. Now, he is at our mercy. Let him know what it’s like to feel pain and beg for it to end.”

El placed her hands on the handrail on the side of Brenner’s bed and leaned a few inches closer.

“Did it make you feel powerful? Kidnapping children and raising them to be your fearful, obedient puppets? What a big, strong man you were. Running an entire operation of child abuse,” El spat. “Don’t think I don’t know how you zeroed in on me because of what I can do. But you know what else I did? I got out. I escaped, and I got away from you. I found people who care about me, who showed me friendship and safety and love. People who took me in and gave me food and clothes, who taught me how to find my own style and what I like and don’t like, who taught me how to ride a bike and who threw me birthday parties. And I fell in love with the most selfless and caring person in the world, and despite all the ways you damaged me, he loves me anyway for who I am. So maybe you have taken my childhood, but when I got out, I found so much more… I won.”

El stood back, still gazing down at the lifeless man in front of her, the beeping monitor and she and Kali’s breathing the only sounds that filled the air. It felt like the weight of the world had been lifted from El’s shoulders as she stood there, seeing with her own eyes that Papa could never hurt anyone else again. She finally felt a relief that she never thought she would; one that she never knew she needed to feel.

“Let’s end this,” Kali said, breaking the silence.

She reached for one of the pillows resting underneath Brenner’s head. Her plan was to suffocate him so it would look like he died of natural causes.

“Kali, wait,” El said. Kali paused and turned to look at her. “We don’t need to do this. He can’t hurt us, or anyone, anymore.”

“Jane, that is not what matters. Think about everything he did to us, to the other children, and to your mother,” Kali said. “Don’t you want justice?”

“Don’t you see, Kali? I have justice. I have a life and love and friendship. Mama has justice. Her damage is irreversible, but she has love from Becky and from me, and I am able to visit her,” El explained. “We have something that Papa doesn’t have. He has been fighting this battle alone and wasting away for three years, and now look at him. He has no one here. He is going to die alone, in a dark room, in pain, with nobody who loves him. Killing him now would just end his suffering and give him the easy way out.”

Kali clenched her fists, struggling to keep El’s words from swaying her decision.

“If you don’t want to help me do this, then leave,” she said firmly.

“Kali, we found him, we came here. He is already as good as dead. We can finally get on with our lives,” El pleaded. “And you don’t have to be on the run anymore. Come home with me. Let go of this pain and vengeance and just accept love and family and friendship.”

“If you don’t want to help me do this, then leave,” Kali repeated even more firmly.

El studied Kali’s face which was still covered in pain and hatred. In her eyes shone disappointment in El for coming all this way and backing out.

“I have the closure I need, now, Kali. I’m sorry. I don’t need to see him die,” El said.

“I’m sorry too, because I do,” Kali replied.

El and Kali turned from each other, both knowing they would not persuade the other. Kali waited until she heard the door close behind El before picking up the pillow and holding it in her hands. She took a deep breath, staring down at the man who ruined her, and then she covered his face with the pillow.

Kali was expecting him to gasp, to struggle, to kick or grab her… but there was nothing. She pushed harder on the pillow, holding it more firmly against Brenner’s face, but still nothing. Kali released her grip on the pillow and furrowed her brow as she looked up at the beeping heart monitor which had not changed rhythm, even when she was trying to suffocate him. She pulled the pillow back and looked down at Brenner’s unchanged face.

Her hands were shaking as Kali reached down and let her fingers graze Brenner’s cheek. She gasped and pulled her hand back when what she felt was not skin. Kali tossed the blanket off of him and pulled up the hospital gown to reveal a long stitch running from where the breastbone should be to wear the bellybutton should be. Kali gulped as she reached forward again, and this time she jabbed her finger into the spot where the stitch began, creating a hole. She ripped the stitch open just far enough for white stuffing to poke out.

“Holy shit,” she gasped. Then, the realization dawned on her as a pit formed in her stomach.

“Jane!” Kali screamed suddenly, running across the room toward the door. “Jane! It’s a trap!”

Outside in the hallway, while Kali had been discovering the Brenner in room 1024 was a fake, El had reached the elevator. Her mind was set on returning to Hawkins, wrapping Mike in her arms and telling him she forgives him for what he said, and seeing her friends again. She pressed the button and waited for the elevator to arrive.

“Jane!” El heard Kali calling her name in the distance right as the elevator dinged as it arrived. “Jane! It’s a trap!”

The elevator doors opened, and El could not control the gasp that left her throat. Her shaky hand rose to cover her gaping mouth as El stumbled backward, her back colliding with the wall behind her. 

“Hello, Eleven,” said the voice that haunted the first twelve years of El’s life.

“No,” El whispered, shaking her head as Brenner stepped out of the elevator and toward her. He was just as El remembered, standing in his sharp black suit, his face not thin or gaunt or sickly, looking completely healthy.

“It has been such a long time,” Brenner said.

“No, no, no!” El screamed, tears stinging the corners of her eyes. “You’re dying! I saw you!” She pointed down the hall toward the room that Kali had just run out of. Kali was now stopped dead in her tracks, staring at Brenner.

“Convincing, wasn’t it?” Brenner sneered. “It’s not exactly the first time we’ve needed a fake body to be used as a decoy.”

“We?” El asked.

“Oh, yes. You didn’t think I was working alone, did you?” Brenner asked. “After that night in the middle school, I was barely hanging on. But I made a full recovery. It took extensive surgeries and physical therapy, but I made it. I knew I would have to relocate from Hawkins, so my most trusted men and women who remained accompanied me, and we rebuilt here.”

“H-here?” El repeated.

“That’s right, Eleven. I own this hospital. It is my new lab,” Brenner confirmed.

“Are- are there… children?” El managed, imagining ten floors full of scared children being used in all sorts of experiments.

“Oh, heavens, no,” Brenner replied. “The first few floors serve as a fully-operational hospital, which allows me to hide in plain sight while I work. The top several floors serve as research labs and surveillance. You see, I had no need to collect any more children, when I knew that you were still out there. You are the only one that I needed.”

Chills shot through El’s veins. She was silent, glued against the wall, as Brenner stepped even closer toward her.

“My, you’ve grown up, haven’t you,” Brenner said. “I can only imagine what that mind of yours can do now. I am so thankful that you finally returned to me.”

“I did not come to join you,” El insisted.

“No, you came to kill me,” Brenner stated knowingly. “But that isn’t going to happen today. I am glad you came, though. You certainly had a lot to get off your chest in there. Tell me, how long had you been dying to say those things to me? To tell me that you – how did you phrase it – won?”

El bit the insides of her cheeks, knowing that he had listened to everything she said in that hospital room, presumably through a hidden microphone somewhere.

“Well, I’m sorry to say that you have won nothing, Eleven. The game is far from over,” Brenner continued.

At this point, Brenner was close enough that El could feel his hot breath on her forehead as he towered over her, looking down as she shuddered from his presence. Brenner reached his hand to the side of El’s head and ran his fingers through her hair, admiring how long it had grown since he last saw her.

“Get your hands off of her, you son of a bitch,” Kali’s voice rang through the hallway, startling El who had been focused solely on Brenner.

Kali drew the gun from her hip that she always carried and pointed it directly at Brenner. She then created nine more of herself pointing the gun at him, so Brenner saw ten of her coming toward him with a gun. Brenner remained still until the ten Kalis he saw were surrounding him.

“Go to hell,” said the Kali that was directly in front of him, her finger on the trigger.

Brenner chuckled and reach behind him, grasping the real Kali’s wrist. She gasped as the other nine versions of herself that she had made Brenner’s mind see disappeared.

“You think you can trick me so easily? I am the one who created you. I helped you hone in on these abilities, Eight,” Brenner said.

He yanked his arm around, flinging Kali against the wall. She hit the wall hard and crumbled on the floor in front of it. Brenner then snapped his fingers, and two large men wearing scrubs appeared from one of the hospital rooms.

“Take them away,” Brenner instructed.

One man grabbed Kali and the other grabbed El, and both girls struggled against the strong arms that held them.

“Let us go!” Kali hollered as she kicked the legs of the man who had ahold of her from behind, pinning her arms to her sides. “Jane! Jane, you have to do something!”

El was being pulled in a separate direction from Kali by the man who had his strong arms wrapped around her. She looked and saw the man holding Kali slide a syringe out of his pocket.

“This will shut you up for a while,” he grunted.

“No!” El screamed as the man was about to inject Kali with whatever was in that syringe.

She closed her eyes and screamed, and both men immediately dropped her and Kali, and the two men were flung all the way down the hallway and through a glass wall. El stood up and wiped the blood from under her nose, seething with hatred as she stared down Brenner.

Brenner grinned before reaching toward the wall and pulling down on the fire alarm. To El’s surprise, no alarm sounded and no sprinklers were triggered. Then, several more men and women in blue scrubs came out of the rooms in the hallway, presumably being summoned by the alarm Brenner had pulled, and started toward El and Kali.

“I told you, Eleven, the game is far from over,” Brenner said.

Kali fumbled for the gun she had dropped and quickly scrambled to her feet. She pointed the gun down the hallway and started firing, hitting three people before another man knocked the gun out of her hand. That same man then threw Kali against the wall, and El watched in horror as Kali’s head bounced off the wall and she fell motionlessly to the floor.

“Kali!” El exclaimed.

She glared at the man who hurt her sister, and suddenly he was shooting upward like a rocket ship, busting through the ceiling. El then used her mind to throw the men nearest her through the opposite wall. She was breathing heavily, wiping the blood that was dripping from her nose, and she looked inside one of the hospital rooms. El took a deep breath, focused all her energy, and let out a blood-curdling scream as she pulled a hospital bed out of the room and hurled it down the hallway, knocking all the remaining men and women backward and through the glass wall that the first two men were thrown through.

El collapsed to her knees, feeling light-headed from draining her energy. She looked over to where Kali was beginning to stir, and then back up at Brenner who was stepping toward her. Brenner crouched down and pulled El into his arms. He stood up, holding her with one arm around her shoulders and the other underneath her knees. Brenner pressed the elevator button to summon it to take them down, and El struggled to keep her eyes open.

“Why don’t you close your eyes now, Eleven. You need your rest,” he said.

El heard the ding of the elevator and the opening of the elevator doors. She heard Brenner gasp and felt him jump, clearly startled.

“Not so fast, you son of a bitch,” boomed a deep, familiar voice.

Then, the sound of a fist colliding with teeth, and El suddenly dropped to the floor.

“Sorry about that, Miss Jane,” Funshine said, kneeling down next to El and helping her sit up.

El looked up and saw Axel, Mick, and Dottie exiting the elevator. Dottie hurried to Kali’s side while Axel took advantage of Brenner being sprawled out on the floor from Funshine’s punch and began kicking him in the ribs.

“Are you okay?” Mick asked El, kneeling down beside Funshine.

El glanced back and forth between the two of them, still disoriented.

“How did you…?” she trailed off.

“We saw the address you wrote down. A while after you two left this morning, something just didn’t feel right. So, we came just in case you needed backup,” Funshine explained.

“Good thing we did, too,” Mick added.

“You want some more?” Axel’s voice filled the hall as he kicked into Brenner’s ribs again. “Huh?” Another kick.

“Axe, that’s enough,” Kali said as Dottie helped her stand up. 

Axel stood back from Brenner as Kali walked forward. El stood shakily and joined Kali, peering over Brenner.

“Get him up,” Kali ordered.

Funshine lifted Brenner by the arms and slammed his back against the wall. Brenner struggled to keep himself standing, leaning against the wall for support.

“Wh-who are… who are you?” Brenner managed to wheeze.

“They’re with us,” El stated.

She wordlessly reached into the inside pocket of her jacket and pulled out the knife that Axel had given her that morning, and she watched as Brenner’s eyes doubled in size when he saw the blade.

“El-eleven… you don’t… w-want to… to do this,” he wheezed, holding his side. “Remember… what you said… Y-you don’t need… to see me die.”

El stared into his eyes, and for the first time in her life, she saw fear staring back at her in them.

“But I do,” Kali said suddenly.

Before El knew it, Kali pulled the knife out of El’s hand and jabbed it forward into Brenner’s abdomen. Brenner let out a pained cry as Kali twisted the knife to the side before pulling it out. Brenner slid down the wall, collapsing on the floor, his eyes not leaving El’s.

“Game over,” El said before she, Kali, and the rest of the gang stepped into the elevator and left him alone to die.

Once outside the hospital, the six of them hurried to the gang’s van and piled inside so they would not be seen. They began wiping the blood from their hands and arms as Mick pulled onto the street.

“That asshole set us up,” Kali told the others.

“How?” Dottie asked.

“He and Ray were communicating. Remember those letters I found at Ray’s?” Kali replied. “Ray must have told him about the first time we showed up, when we didn’t kill him… I am sure Brenner saw the news report after I actually finished Ray off last year. He must have figured we would come. He was waiting for us.”

“Well, that sick son of a bitch is gone now. You and Shirley don’t have to worry about him anymore,” Axel said.

“Where to?” Mick called over her shoulder, interjecting as they were about to reach the highway.

“Get out of the city and head northeast,” Kali instructed. “We haven’t been to Boston in a while.”

“Actually, before you take off, could you drop me off at a bus station first?” El asked.

Kali snapped her head around to face El, sadness filling her eyes.

“Please stay with us, Jane. We make such a great team,” Kali pleaded. “Besides, it has been so nice to be with my sister again.”

“I’m sorry, Kali. This way of life is just not who I am,” El said. “But my offer still stands. Come home with me. You can meet my friends, and we can still be together.”

A sad smile crossed Kali’s face, and El knew the answer was no.

“And that is just not who I am,” Kali said before turning back toward Mick. “Take her to the bus station.”

The ride to the bus station was quick, and the gang made sure El had everything she would need. Axel cleaned his knife and gave it back to her to take with her. Dottie found some unopened snacks in the van and gave them to El to take with her. When they finally reached the bus station, El went around the van giving Funshine, Dottie, Mick, and Axel each a hug. She hopped out onto the sidewalk, and Kali stepped out with her.

“You are sure that going back is what you want?” Kali asked, and El smiled.

“You know how you told me that I fill the hole in your life?” she asked, and Kali nodded. “That is what Mike does for me. He completes me. I love him, Kali, and I have to go back.”

“Okay,” Kali nodded reluctantly.

“Here,” El handed Kali a piece of paper. “This is my phone number and address in Indianapolis. Just because we can’t be together all the time doesn’t mean we can’t still be sisters.”

Kali smiled and tucked the paper inside her pocket. She wrapped El into a tight hug, and when she pulled back, El saw tears brimming Kali’s eyes.

“Take care of yourself, Jane,” Kali said.

“You too, Kali,” El replied.

Then, Kali stepped back into the van and closed the sliding door, and El stepped to the counter to buy her bus ticket.

The ride back to Hawkins was nearly twelve hours long. As soon as El was seated, she thought about visiting Mike in the void again to let him know that she was safe and that she was on her way home. She knew Jonathan had said they would go out searching for her today, and she felt guilty for making them all worry. However, El’s energy had not fully recovered from the fight at the hospital. She decided to rest briefly and then visit Mike in the void. But, as soon as her head leaned back against the headrest, El was asleep and did not wake up until the bus arrived in Hawkins.

At Jonathan and Nancy’s apartment, Will was standing at the sink in the kitchen, filling a glass with water. Jonathan had assisted the party in searching all over town for El that afternoon, and there had been no trace of her. Jonathan agreed to have one more day of searching tomorrow, but if they could not find El, he would be filing a missing persons report with the police and contacting their mom.

Suddenly, Will heard fumbling at the front door. It sounded like a key was inserted, and he walked toward the living room just in time to see El pushing the door open.

“El,” he sighed, running toward her and wrapping his arms around her.

“Hi, Will,” El said quietly against his chest, squeezing him tightly in return.

Will pulled back and looked down at El, his brow furrowing.

“What are you wearing? And is that dried blood?” he asked.

“It’s a long story, and I’m exhausted,” El said.

“I bet so. It’s one in the morning,” Will pointed out.

“What are you still doing up?” El asked.

“I just woke up with a dry throat and wanted some water,” Will explained. “You don’t have to tell me everything, but are you okay?”

“Yeah,” El nodded. “I’m fine. And I’m sorry.”

“Sorry?” Will furrowed his brow.

“I’m – I’m sorry for implying that you guys weren’t as much of a family to me as Kali… That wasn’t cool,” El explained. “You guys and Mom have all done way more for me than you needed to… especially after Hopper… Well, I just want you to know that I’m sorry. You are my family, and I love you.”

“I love you too. We all do,” Will smiled, pulling her into another hug. “Now, go take a shower and get some sleep. I say this as lovingly as possible, but you smell like shit.”

El laughed and nodded, walking toward the bathroom. She stopped and turned back to Will.

“Um, Will… is Mike still here?” she asked.

“Yeah. We let him sleep in your room,” Will replied, gesturing toward the spare bedroom where El was sleeping while staying with Jonathan and Nancy this summer.

“Thanks,” El smiled.

She continued into the bathroom, eager to take a hot shower and wash off the events of earlier that day. El closed her eyes and let the hot water run down her hair and body, taking extra time to massage the shampoo into her scalp and making sure to cover every inch of her skin in her body wash. Finally, she stepped out of the shower, towel-dried herself, and slipped into her robe that was hanging on the back of the bathroom door.

El crossed the hallway to her bedroom for the summer, and she quietly pushed the door open. As soon as she stepped inside, she could hear the soft sound of Mike breathing. She saw his form slightly rising and falling in the dark with each breath that he took in his sleep. El tiptoed to the dresser and pulled out a pair of underwear, cloth shorts, and a t-shirt. She slipped out of her robe and into the fresh nightclothes before stepping over to the side of the bed.

El sat on the edge of the bed, gazing down at her sleeping boyfriend. She reached out and ran her fingers through his soft hair that was laying on the pillow, and his eyes began to flutter. El waited while Mike opened his eyes and adjusted his vision, and she smiled in the instant that he realized she was there with him.

“El?” Mike asked, propping himself up on an elbow. “A-are you really here?”

El smiled and leaned forward, kissing him softly on the lips.

“Mhm,” she hummed against his lips. “I’m really here.”

Mike sat the rest of the way up and pulled her into his arms, burying his face in the crook of her neck. She squeezed her arms around him, tracing her fingers gently up and down his back.

“I’m so glad you’re okay,” Mike whispered against her neck.

He pulled back and ran his fingers through El’s hair which was still damp from her shower.

“I was so worried about you,” Mike said. “And, El, I’m so sorry for what I said-”

“It’s okay, Mike,” El interrupted. “I know why you said it… I heard.”

She watched as it dawned on him, and she grinned when his eyes widened.

“I knew you were there,” Mike said, as if proving that he had not been crazy.

El smiled again and laced her fingers with his, rubbing her thumb along his palm.

“So, um… about where you went,” Mike began unsure. “You don’t have to tell me anything you don’t want to-”

“I’ll tell you everything tomorrow,” El said sincerely. “But tonight I just want to sleep.”

Mike kissed her forehead and nodded. He scooted over so El could lay down next to him, and he wrapped his arm around her while she rested her head on his chest.

“El?” Mike said softly after a moment.

“Yes?” El replied sleepily from his chest.

“I’m happy you’re home,” Mike said, and he felt El smile against him.

“Me too,” she whispered.

“I don’t think I would’ve made it if you didn’t come back,” Mike added.

El raised her head to look up at him and meet his eyes.

“Mike, I’ll always come back. You’re not going to lose me. I love you,” she assured him gently.

“I love you too,” Mike said.

El leaned in to kiss him again before laying her head back down on his chest, and the two of them drifted off to sleep in each other’s arms.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: The End. Thanks for reading. I hope you liked it!


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